Help Me ; Fears for Beagles Shipped to UK Drug-Research Labs

ANIMAL campaigners are fighting to save hundreds of beagles
destined for research labs.

A drug company is shipping the dogs to Britain from a kennel in
Sweden but campaigners say they should be rehomed and given a life
worth living instead of used for tests.

Trusting, loyal and docile, the beagle makes a wonderful family
pet. But it’s these same qualities that have helped make them
the number one dog for experiments. Their physical robustness and a
relative lack of inherited medical conditions has contributed to
their dubious popularity with scientists.

The dogs are currently being kept at a kennel owned by
pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca.

It is closing two breeding facilities - one in the UK and one
attached to a lab in Sweden - and has said some remaining beagles
will be brought to its Alderley Park research facility in
Cheshire.

Britain’s National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) and
Sweden’s Animal Rights Alliance are urging the company to
give the dogs a second chance.

But two shipments of 100 dogs are believed to have already
arrived in the UK - one as recently as two weeks ago.

Chance The company permitted employees to rehome as many as 80
of the beagles but it has said that after careful consideration it
will keep the rest for research. It is thought 400 dogs face an
uncertain future.

So far, 12,000 people have signed a petition supporting the
rehoming project and more than 20 organisations have written to
senior management at AstraZeneca asking them to give the dogs to
good homes.

Swedish campaigner Johan Carlsson said: "We’re asking
AstraZeneca to give these dogs a chance. The closure of the lab is
an opportunity to find good homes for them."

But AstraZeneca spokesman Esra Erkal-Paler said: "Our team has
concluded that, because these dogs have been purpose-bred for
research, they are needed to support our global research
efforts.

"The welfare of the dogs has been and remains our utmost
priority and contrary to some reports, no animal is being
euthanised as a result of the kennels closing down."

The company said the dogs are mainly used for research on heart
disease as well as diabetes, asthma and rheumatism.

It also tests drugs on rats and mice but said that only about
one per cent of its work involved testing on live animals.

Certain tests are required by regulators before a new drug is
launched.

But NAVS has said many of the animals are subjected to cruel
testing and it dreaded to think of the "needless suffering" the
dogs faced if used for research.

It also stressed that dogs used for medical testing can go on to
lead normal, happy lives because it has successfully rehomed
animals in the past.

Organisations across the globe exist to save the hounds from
experiments, including The Beagle Welfare Scheme in Britain, which
has called the beagles’ lab plight "sad and ironic".

AstraZeneca has gone through a number of cost-cutting phases and
in 2012 axed 7,500 jobs. It also said it would no longer breed the
dogs but would buy them in instead.